The round table was attended by the representatives of Oblast State Administrations (OSAs), Oblast Councils and civil society organizations from Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad and Poltava oblasts. The event is part of the activities conducted by the national civic monitoring network on implementation of oblast-level programmes to promote civil society development with support from UNDP and Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Deputy Head of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Council, Dmytro Bezuhly, welcomed the participants of the round table on behalf of the OC Head, Yevhen Udod, and noted that the oblast Programme for fostering civic initiatives of the population for 2012-2016 had been recently thoroughly reviewed and supplemented with contest-based support to activities of CSOs. Such competitions will be conducted annually for CSOs specializing in various issues.

Maksym Latsyba, Programme Officer of the Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research, provided a brief overview of the policies aimed at fostering the development of the civil society. He emphasized the importance of coordinated activities of the OC and OSA to assist the civil society in its growth.

According to Mr. Latsyba, the existing statute of Dnipropetrovsk city requires changes so as to align with a crucial priority of state policy: ensuring effective mechanisms for citizen participation in solving issues of local importance. At the same time, he noted that statutes of territorial communities in many cities of Dnipropetrovsk oblast were lacking altogether.

Andriy Krupnyk, Head of the Association for Promoting Citizen Self-Organization, noted that the goal of the project implemented by the CSO coalition is to realistically assess the status of implementing the state policy for fostering civil society development at the sub-national level, and to propose – as necessary – possible amendments both to the oblast-level target programmes and to the way that they are implemented. Yet, according to him, effective policy implementation also hinged on readiness to cooperate as demonstrated by the civil society.

UCIPR Expert, Anastasia Krasnosilska, presented analysis of the Programme for fostering civic initiatives of the population for 2012-2016 in Dnipropetrovsk oblast and dwelled upon promising practices for implementation of similar programmatic activities in other regions.

The programme's objectives lie in creating enabling legal and administrative conditions for CSOs, nurturing cross-sectoral cooperation, fostering the development of grassroots democracy, spreading the relevant values and supporting initiatives of CSOs aimed at regional development. As such, these objectives coincide with the aims stipulated by the Strategy for fostering civil society development, while some concrete programmatic activities could benefit from more detailed explanations.

Head of Dnipropetrovsk city association "Nash Dim", Anzhelika Pylypenko, noted that it was after Yevhen Udod became Head of the Oblast Council, a number of cross-sectoral agreements came into being and competitions were launched to spur civic initiatives in the areas of housing and communal services and territorial management improvement as well as energy-saving. All of these projects, dozens of which were implemented, were characterized by cost-sharing arrangements.

Useful innovations also took shape as so-called "civic platforms" for implementation of the land and medical reforms in Dnipropetrovsk oblast. These were described by the Head of the Department for Local Self-Government Development under the Oblast Council, Oleksiy Tishkin.

Interesting experiences were also showcased vis-à-vis implementation of oblast programmes for fostering civil society development from other regions – Kirovohrad (presented by OSA Deputy Head of Department for Public Relations, Oleksiy Romanov) and Poltava (presented by the Civic Council Budget Committee Head under OSA, Vadym Shtefan). Kirovohrad OSA, for instance, established a consulting center for cooperation with the civil society several years ago. As a result, dozens of civil society organizations were successfully created, registered and received technical assistance from donor agencies for addressing local challenges.

Another thematic issue that was discussed at the round table was the introduction of the new Law of Ukraine "On Public Associations". UCIPR Expert, Anastasia Shymchuk, dwelled on some of the innovations envisaged by this law and noted that the new regulatory framework, which is active from January 2013, is called to significantly simplify registration of civil society organizations, solve the issues linked to their non-for-profit status and entrepreneurial activities by public associations.

These questions provoked a discussion and prompted for comments from Head of the Department of Justice in Dnipropetrovsk oblast a.i., Iryna Lurye, and the Head of Dnipropetrovsk City Department of Justice, Olena Postolovska.

At the end of the round table, the organizers proposed the participants ways to further engage the non-governmental sector into co-implementing the policies aimed at fostering civil society development. UCIPR experts presented and distributed info-posters dedicated to registration of a public association.

One of the leading thoughts that crystallized as a result of the event was the "stronger together" formula. And, therefore, the existing CSO coalition would benefit from its expansion through most proactive organizations in the Dnipropetrovsk region.